Iran International
The war has pushed relations between Iran and the United Arab Emirates close to rupture, disrupting one of the region’s most important commercial relationships and leaving ordinary Iranians who built lives and businesses caught in the fallout.
Hundreds of thousands of Iranians who built lives and businesses in the UAE now face visa cancellations, frozen finances and mounting uncertainty as relations between Tehran and Abu Dhabi deteriorate.
According to several affected residents, Iranian nationals who left the UAE during the recent conflict—whether for Iran or third countries—are no longer being allowed to return, even to collect their belongings. In some cases, families still inside the Emirates have reportedly been given only weeks to leave.
Many Iranian residents say they have also been instructed to transfer funds abroad and are increasingly unable to use UAE bank accounts.
While properties and businesses have not formally been confiscated, some owners can no longer manage them directly and must rely on proxies or powers of attorney to sell assets.
Foreign companies operating in the UAE are also becoming increasingly reluctant to deal with Iranian individuals or firms, particularly those connected to trade with Iran. Many export orders involving Iran have reportedly been canceled.
“No one knows what tomorrow will bring”
Reza, a 40-year-old Iranian who has lived in Dubai with his wife for more than eight years, said Iranians still inside the UAE have not yet been deported but remain under constant pressure.
“For now, our residency status in Dubai has not changed,” he said. “But my friends say Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and other emirates are cancelling visas even for Iranians who are still inside the country.”
Reza said he and his wife, a physician, have effectively lost their livelihoods despite retaining residency permits. His wife’s hospital declined to renew her contract, while his own import-export business has ground to a halt.
“My situation is very unclear,” he said. “No one knows what tomorrow will bring.”
He added that although his company’s licence has not officially been revoked, it can no longer function because trade involving Iran has effectively stopped.
“With work permits cancelled, people can no longer use their own assets,” he said. “A food wholesaler’s store has been shut down and, because he no longer has a business licence, he cannot even sell the goods sitting in his warehouse.”
According to Reza, the pressure is even greater on intermediaries accused of helping Iran circumvent sanctions by selling oil or moving funds abroad. He said many have already been expelled from the UAE and had their bank accounts frozen.
A critical trade relationship disrupted
For years, Dubai, particularly Jebel Ali port, served as one of Iran’s most important commercial gateways, handling a large share of Iranian imports and transit trade. The UAE was often Iran’s largest or second-largest trading partner after China.
That trade route now appears severely disrupted amid rising regional tensions and what Iranian media describe as a tightening maritime blockade.
The UAE said Friday it had intercepted new missile and drone attacks allegedly launched from Iran, adding that three residents were injured.
Earlier this week, Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters denied carrying out attacks on the UAE but warned that any operation launched from Emirati territory against Iranian islands, ports or coastlines would receive a “crushing and regret-inducing response.”
Iranian media have meanwhile intensified criticism of Abu Dhabi. Jam-e Jam newspaper described the alleged seizure of Iranian assets as “modern-day robbery and open hostility,” while Abolfazl Khaki of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce accused the UAE of showing “maximum hostility” toward Iranian traders during the recent conflict.
“The recent experience showed that the UAE is no longer a safe place for Iranian investors,” Khaki said.
Iranian officials are now openly discussing alternative trade hubs. Nadir Pourparcham of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce said trade ties with the UAE “will never return to the way they were” and pointed to Qatar’s Hamad Port as a possible replacement. Iranian media have also promoted Pakistan’s ports as alternative corridors for Iranian trade.
The conservative outlet Mashregh News argued that Iran no longer needed “unreliable intermediaries” such as the UAE and said closer ties with China and Pakistan could help Tehran withstand economic pressure.
“It is time for Dubai to understand that Iran’s geography is not for sale,” the outlet wrote.
The Washington-based Institute said three other attacked sites could also be nuclear-related, but there was not enough information to be certain. In total, it said six to nine recently attacked sites were nuclear-related.
The most consequential finding is that four to seven of those sites were directly, or possibly, connected to nuclear weaponization – the process of turning nuclear material into an actual bomb.
Iran’s nuclear program has two main parts. One is producing enriched uranium, the material that can be used as fuel for civilian reactors or, at much higher levels, in a nuclear weapon. The other is weaponization: designing, testing and producing the components needed to make a working bomb.
The Institute’s report suggests the latest strikes focused heavily on the second part.
It said the recent phase of the war appeared aimed less at Iran’s already damaged enrichment infrastructure and more at degrading its ability to make the weapon itself. Some of the sites hit in this phase had not previously been publicly identified, the report said, offering new insight into what it described as the extent of Iran’s nuclear weapons-related work.
Across both phases of the war – the 12-day conflict in June 2025 and the renewed fighting from February 28 until a ceasefire on April 7/8, 2026 – the Institute said nine to 12 sites involved in developing and building nuclear weapons were targeted.
The report said Iran’s major enrichment facilities remained severely damaged from the June 2025 war. It said there was no significant new damage to facilities directly associated with uranium enrichment because they had already been destroyed, and that no reconstruction or renewed enrichment had been detected.
But the Institute said the latest strikes added another layer of damage by targeting places linked to the practical work of making a bomb.
One of the most important sites was Min-Zadayi (also Minzadehei), a previously unknown complex east of Tehran.
Israel described it as a secret nuclear compound where scientists were working on a key component of a nuclear weapons system. The Institute said later reporting suggested the site may have been involved in metallurgy – likely work connected to producing the uranium metal core of a nuclear weapon.
In simple terms, that would be one of the most sensitive stages of bomb-making: taking nuclear material and preparing it in the physical form needed for a weapon.
Satellite imagery showed three large above-ground buildings destroyed at Min-Zadayi, as well as craters near hillside and possibly partially buried structures, the report said.
Another major target was Taleghan 2, inside the Parchin military complex. The site has long been associated with Iran’s past nuclear weapons work under the Amad Plan, a program believed to have been halted in its original form in 2003 but followed by later, more concealed work.
The Institute said Iran had rebuilt and heavily fortified Taleghan 2 before it was hit in March. Satellite imagery showed earth-penetrating weapons struck the facility directly. The report said the site may have contained high-explosive containment equipment.
That is significant because high explosives are central to the design of many nuclear weapons. They are used to compress nuclear material rapidly and evenly, a crucial step in producing a nuclear explosion.
The report also mentioned strikes near the Mojdeh site, also known as Lavisan 2, and at Malek Ashtar University. Both have been linked in the report to Iran’s nuclear weapons research network.
A newly built engineering-laboratory building near Mojdeh was destroyed, while a building at Malek Ashtar was described by Israel as a research and development site used to develop components for nuclear weapons production.
Other targets included the Shahid Chamran Group complex, which the Institute connected to nuclear-related research, and a building at Imam Hussein University that Israel labeled as a physics center used for Iran’s nuclear program.
The strikes also hit two sites tied to Iran’s broader nuclear fuel cycle. The Arak heavy water production plant was destroyed more thoroughly than during the June war, the Institute said. Heavy water can be used in certain types of reactors that can produce plutonium, another possible route to a nuclear weapon.
The Ardakan Yellowcake Production Plant was also rendered inoperable. Yellowcake is an early processed form of uranium. It is not bomb material, but it is a starting point for later nuclear work, including enrichment.
Enriched uranium stockpile
Despite the damage, the report does not suggest Iran’s nuclear challenge has been eliminated.
The most important unresolved issue is Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile. The Institute said tunnel complexes at Esfahan and near Natanz were not directly attacked in this phase and are believed to hold most of Iran’s enriched uranium, including about 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent.
That level is below weapons-grade, but far above what is typically needed for civilian nuclear power and much closer to the level needed for a bomb.
The Institute said Iran had sealed some tunnel entrances before the latest war and that much of the enriched uranium appears “bottled up” in places where movement would be easier to detect. But without international inspection, the exact status of the material remains unclear.
The report also said additional nuclear scientists were killed, including senior figures linked to SPND, the military research organization associated with Iran’s nuclear weapons-related work. The Institute drew a distinction between knowledge, which cannot be destroyed, and practical know-how, which can be much harder to replace in a secret weapons program.
The overall picture is therefore one of severe damage, but not finality as Iran may still possess a large stockpile of enriched uranium, and underground sites remain a central uncertainty.
The Institute’s assessment is that the attacks have increased both the time Iran would need to build a nuclear weapon and the chance that an attempt could fail. Its argument is not simply that buildings were destroyed, but that Iran lost facilities, equipment and people connected to the difficult final steps of making a usable weapon.
Information received by Iran International points to growing financial pressure across sectors including agriculture, fishing, retail and manufacturing after weeks of disruption linked to conflict, internet shutdowns and trade uncertainty.
The price of potassium fertilizer for a 50-kilogram sack has increased tenfold compared to last year, reaching about 70 million rials (around $40), one farmer told Iran International.
Rice farmers typically require around six sacks of fertilizer per hectare, sharply increasing cultivation costs at a time when many already struggle with falling incomes.
The farmer added that urea fertilizer prices have also risen severalfold in recent months.
Mehdi Hosseinizadeh, head of Iran’s Association of Pesticide and Fertilizer Importers, linked the increase in fertilizer prices on Thursday to damage suffered by some petrochemical facilities during the war and shipping disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz.
Hosseinizadeh also cited rising import costs, shortages in global fertilizer markets, difficulties securing supplies from China and India, and problems related to currency allocation and import registration.
Another farmer had earlier told Iran International that the price of drip irrigation tape rose from 4 million rials ($2.25) to 30 million ($17), while fertilizer costs climbed from 8 million rials ($4.5) to more than 100 million ($57).
Drip irrigation tape is a thin polymer tube used in irrigation systems to deliver water gradually to plant roots and reduce water consumption in row crops.
Workers report layoffs and business closures
Citizens from several provinces described worsening conditions for workers and tradespeople during the ceasefire period following the conflict.
A fisherman from Qeshm island said he had been unemployed for several months and that falling prices for export fish had increased pressure on local fishermen.
Another resident from Sarbandar, Khuzestan province, described rising unemployment among port workers and shrinking household incomes.
“Everything I earn goes toward rent, transportation and a small amount of food,” the resident said.
Several citizens had previously told Iran International they were selling household goods, work tools and personal belongings to cover food and basic living expenses after losing jobs and income.
One former worker from Tehran said he had been unemployed for nearly three months after beginning work in the electrical equipment market.
“My financial situation has deteriorated sharply and daily life has become difficult to endure,” he said.
A florist from Arak said the prices of supplies including paper, glue, ribbons, boxes and floral foam had quadrupled over the past two months.
Residents in Kashan also described carpet factories shutting down and laying off workers.
Shopkeepers in several parts of Tehran, also reported widespread business closures.
